I mean as played, he was maybe .5 seconds late getting the snap off, so yeah 5 yards should easily do it (but of course the benefit of the run decreases inversely with how far he goes, too).
I will say the rest of the offense did a great job running up as a unit and getting in place for the spike, but that just points out another flaw in this strat. If even one lineman winds up on his ass and takes an extra couple seconds to get up, they’re toast. Way way way too many things have to go right when you’re cutting it that close.
Is that thing about :02 having to come off the clock for every snap a real thing that they enforce (kinda like how in the NBA if there’s .3s or less you ‘officially’ don’t have time for a regular shot)? I feel like I’ve seen spikes that took 1 or even 0 seconds off, but it’s so rare that they come this close to the wire I haven’t really paid attention.
If they really do always drain 2 seconds off, then they really weren’t remotely close to getting it off in time.
I don’t really get the criticism of the officials. The ref seemed to do a perfectly decent job of getting in there and spotting the ball as quickly as he could. He couldn’t realistically be in place much quicker, as he would’ve interfered with the play (unless a different official should’ve been there?). Seems like Dak putting the ball down and letting the ref get it might have been faster than finding a ref and giving him the ball.
Overall, seems like the problems were a) Dak tried for too many yards and lost time, b) some of the Cowboys players were a bit nonchalant, and c) Dak should’ve called of the spike.
Well the idea is you’re screaming 911 as everyone is getting set. You don’t wait until then to start trying to call off the spike. I think they snapped the ball off in time, just barely.
Speaking as a Cowboys fan, the bottom line of course is that they played like dogshit and didn’t remotely deserve to even be in this spot anyway, it took two lol Jimmy G throws and some head scratching prevent defense at the end to make it happen.
I sort of wish they’d just lost by 3 scores like they should have, so blame can be rationally pointed where it belongs instead of looking back at this as some “lol tough break it’s a game of inches huh?” kind of thing.
I’ve been confused about something with regards to “hurry-up” plays. Say the offense gets a first down, hands the ball to the ref, and gets set-up. However, the defenders are taking their time and are still in the offensive team’s backfield when the ref is going to place the ball on the ground.
Does the ref call time-out or allow the offense to snap the ball while a couple of D-linemen are still in the backfield for an automatic off-sides?
